


The Greatest Gifts

by greengrlelphie



Category: Wonder Woman (Movies - Jenkins)
Genre: Drama & Romance, F/M, Family Feels, Love, Post-War, References to Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-16 19:55:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29459355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greengrlelphie/pseuds/greengrlelphie
Summary: What happened after Diana lost Steve in 1918?
Relationships: Diana (Wonder Woman)/Steve Trevor
Comments: 7
Kudos: 21





	1. Lost and Found

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for your support, please enjoy!

No one had prepared Diana for the end of the war or for what would come once the treaties were signed that brought peace. In all of her training and preparation throughout her life, that was never mentioned or brought up. The deafening silence of coming back to a life without someone that you loved was unsettling in so many ways for her. People were celebrating in the streets, as they should, because the fighting was over and there was peace. But, like so many others, Diana mourned. She mourned the loss of her innocence and the naive nature that she had come to this land with and the clandestine hope that mankind would return to their true nature once Ares was gone. Above all, she grieved for the loss of Steve. A man she had only known a handful of days, but would love for a lifetime. Because of him, she carried the belief that the world could be saved, with love, and that she would remain in this world to continue that fight. For him.

When she returned to London, she found herself living in Steve’s flat. Etta and Sameer had forged documents that made her Steve’s widow, meaning that benefits would come to her and that all of his belongings were now hers. Diana would have preferred to have Steve to any possession or monetary gain, but remaining where he lived was as close to that as she could manage, especially in the world of man where women had very little in the way of rights or property. Living in his flat, she knew he spent little time here, but she could sense him in every part. His clothes were hung in the closet, still pressed and clean, but the scent was still Steve. At night, she would curl into the sheets of the bed and pretend he was with her, holding her. The dreams...nightmares Etta called them, were often unbearable as she would see Steve die over and over again. Waking from them, she would find herself alone, curling into herself further and wishing he was there.

It was four weeks after the end of the war when Diana realized that something was not right. As an Amazon and a goddess, she had never been ill before in her life, so when she woke in the morning retching the contents of her stomach from the previous evening more than once, she knew something was amiss. A conversation with Etta quickly revealed the source of the illness.

She was pregnant.

With her knowledge of reproductive biology, she knew that the night she and Steve had spent together in Veld had been the night their child was conceived. That night, she had been vulnerable with the man who had shown her the world and who had given her reason to smile when they were among the darkest corners of mankind. He had danced with her and brought her to her room with no intent or expectation, but she had allowed herself to show her own feelings to the man she had fallen for. During that night, he had shown her what it meant for two people to love one another wholly and completely, without any reservation or regret. And that had given her the greatest gift she had ever been given. The last piece of Steve that she had. There was no question of her keeping the child, as her mind was almost immediately made up, and she resolved to raise this child with all the love she could give. For both her and Steve.

Her pregnancy was uneventful, peaceful, even, as she worked quietly alongside Etta as a secretary and linguist, though it took convincing a room full of men that she was far more educated than any man of this age in languages both dead and current. The work was tedious, but kept her mind busy. She continued to help others with her own time and dedicated time to assist Etta in suffragette causes as well. Etta, whom she had become close to in the months following the war, had in turn helped her prepare her flat for the baby that was going to be arriving. They had purchased clothing and furniture for the child and Etta had enlisted the assistance of a midwife, who would attend to Diana during her labor. Everything was coming together. But also, in times when she was alone, falling apart.

Though she was strong, Diana could not deny that her heart was still grieving the loss of Steve. She was angry that he was not here to share in the joy that she experienced while waiting for their baby. That he could not feel the little one kicking and rolling around in her belly. And that their baby would never know their father, but only the stories of those that knew him. In those moments when she was alone, she would hold her belly and remind herself that he would want her to live. To try and go forward in her life and to enjoy things that were happy. Especially their child. A beautiful reminder of the man that she had loved, who had given all of himself to save the lives of so many who would never even know him. During the times when she felt the most vulnerable and the most alone, she would pull one of Steve’s shirts from the closet and pull it on over her belly, running her hands over the curve as she stood in front of the mirror. It was a small gesture that allowed her to feel closer to him. For their baby to feel closer to him. Even if it did not bring him back, it still felt like some security to Diana. Some sense of normalcy in the life that she was now living alone.

Throughout her pregnancy, Etta, Charlie, Sammy, and Chief would always check on her. Each had their own way of showing their care and concern for her while she endured the pregnancy without Steve at her side. Charlie would come by and bring small gifts of bread from the bakery nearby and sit with her for a time to talk about music or play her a small tune on the piano. Sammy would bring her small tokens from his country and tell her stories of the people he had met on his travels, which would entertain her for hours. Chief would bring her stories of his people and books. So many books to read and to learn about the world she now lived in. And Etta...she was the anchor Diana had in this world. She taught her to cook and to navigate the world of man. They all took such good care of her and she could never thank them enough. 

At the end of the summer of 1919, Diana gave birth on a stormy night. The pain had not been terrible at first, with the small twinges in her back and belly coming every few minutes. But the pain intensified and she soon knew that it was time. The midwife was summoned and Diana labored on into the night. While the winds blew and the thunder cracked outside, she brought her baby into the world. The pain was unlike any she had ever experienced in her life, though goddesses experienced pain differently than mortals, but she had pushed through and by daylight, she was a mother. The midwife placed the small bundle in her arms and she looked down into the eyes of her baby for the first time. The child was flush and pink with a dark mess of hair on the top of their head, but beautiful and perfect in every single way. 

“Does she have a name?” The midwife was changing the sheets to clean and dry ones.

“Andromeda Stephanie Prince,” she replied softly.

“That is a beautiful name.”

“My mother was from Greece...and my late husband’s name was Steve,” she explained quietly. A way to honor both parts of her daughter’s heritage.

“Well she is a beautiful baby,” the midwife said. “One of the most beautiful I have ever helped deliver.”

“Thank you,” Diana said, beaming with pride.

The midwife stayed for some time to help Diana up from the bed to walk around and to show her how to properly nurse her newborn. Her body was exhausted, but she was so happy and so thankful that she had a healthy baby. When she was alone a while later, Diana studied her daughter’s face and saw so many reminders of Steve. They had the same nose and ears. She wondered if they had come from other members of his family. He had never really spoken of his family back home in America, so she had to wonder what came from them. But Andromeda’s hair and her hands were all Diana. The strong hands of the Amazons before her.

“I promise that I will always be here to love you and protect you,” she swore, kissing her daughter’s head. “You will never be alone.”

For a long time, she was angry at her mother for not telling her the truth of her birth and for lying to her about having a father. It had caused a lot of pain and a lot of uncertainty when she learned the truth of who she was from her brother. But now, as a mother herself, she understood her mother’s desire to keep her safe as long as possible from the man who would have certainly killed her without a second thought as a child. Her mother had done all she could to keep Diana protected from Ares and from the world of men, where there were cruel lessons to be learned. Her daughter would not be unprotected in this world. Diana knew that she would do anything for her and that no matter where she was, she would always protect her.

“Are you up for a visitor?” Etta stood in the doorway with a smile and a plate of food.

“Oh yes,” she replied, smiling as she moved the baby up in her arms a little. 

“I thought you might be hungry after all that labor and having a baby,” Etta said as she came over.

“Oh, absolutely,” she said as she laughed a little. 

Etta came over and set the plate down on the bed while she peeked into the tiny bundle in Diana’s arms. 

“Oh look at that precious little face,” she cooed. “Such a perfect little angel.”

“It is a girl,” Diana replied, beaming with pride. 

“Well she is just perfect…look at those little hands!” 

“Would you like to hold her?” 

Etta nodded and gently took the baby in her arms as she peered into the blanket with equal parts adoration and love. 

“She looks so much like him,” Etta marveled. “But also you.”

“He would be proud,” Diana said with a sad smile. 

“Yes, yes he would,” Etta agreed. “And he would have knocked down doors to be at your side.”

“He would have.” Diana said, knowing Steve would have not taken no for an answer when it came to being at her side.

“What is her name?” Etta asked softly.

“Andromeda,” she replied. “Andromeda Stephanie Prince.”

“A beautiful name.”

Diana felt her lips tug into a small smile. Though she was exhausted, this was the happiest she had been in so long. Her daughter had brought back the light to her world that had gone dark the moment that Steve had died. It was not something she would ever take for granted either. Not now. Or ever.

* * *

The light in the room was dim, but almost too bright at the same time as he opened his eyes. Disoriented and groggy, he sat up in the bed he was confined to, realizing that he had bandages that were wrapped all around different parts of his body. Starting with his head and going all the way down to his foot, which was elevated in a sling. The pain was not as intense as he expected with so many bandages, but he guessed that they had given him some sort of sedative or anesthetic to take most of the pain away. 

“Oh, you’re awake,” a voice called from the side of the bed. He turned to see a nurse that had a clipboard at the ready.

“How...how long have I been out?” He could not put together any kind of timeline.

“Well the war ended in November and it is now...well April, so about five months now, sir,” she replied.

Five months of unconsciousness. How the hell did anyone survive that? Better yet, where the hell was he? Looking around, he could not immediately guess where he was or who these people were, but from the looks of it, he was not the only patient here. Lining the walls were other hospital beds with various patients that were in different states, varying from the severely wounded to those that were almost healed and ready to leave for home.

“My name is Margaret. You’re in a hospital in Belgium. Can you tell me your name, sir?” 

His attention turned to the nurse once more. Instantly, he tried to recollect any information that he might have to share and came up with a blank. “I...uh...I don’t remember.”

“Well...they found you in the forest with a German uniform, but you’re lucky that the war was over and they took you in. But...you don’t sound German,” she said, seemingly curious about the contradiction. “Do you have any idea, Mr. John Doe?”

“No...no I don’t sound German, do I?” He was as perplexed. “American?”

“That is what I think...you don’t sound British or like anywhere I’ve heard in Europe either,” she said. “Maybe we can get in touch with the embassy and find out if there are any missing soldiers that might fit your description...though it might take some time. There has been a lot of chaos since the end of the war.”

He nodded, understanding that it was not easy to get information quickly in this day and age. At least, that’s what he thought. Nothing came to mind when he tried to recall thoughts of who he might be. Except for one thing. A woman. He did not know her name, but he saw her face in his mind during the time when he was not conscious. She was beautiful, with dark curls that framed her face and eyes that reminded him of chocolate or coffee. But he had no idea who she was. Or what she meant to him, other than he saw her in his dreams. And that was enough for him to know that she was important.

During his first month in the hospital, John had to learn how to stand on his feet again and walk. The injuries he had sustained were substantial and he had pain in his leg when he tried to bear weight on it, though that lessened with time and practice. His burns were treated and the scarring was minimal, which was a miracle, according to the doctors. John made friends with the other soldiers that were being treated and talked of happier times, before the war, when they had lives back home in their cities and villages. Many had families and wives that were waiting on them. John, it seemed, still had no idea who he belonged to or if he belonged to anyone. All he knew was that the beautiful woman from his dreams still visited each night and that she was important.

By July, John was fully mended physically and ready to be discharged from the field hospital where he had been staying for the last eight months. However, no one knew where to discharge him as information from the American embassy had still not come through. So, without anywhere to return to, he stayed with the hospital as an assistant to those that were still recovering for another month. However, his dreams were becoming stronger and more frequent. So much so that he woke in a sweat, reaching out for the woman in his dreams. On one night, he had a fitful dream of the woman in pain. She was in so much pain and crying out.  _ For him.  _ Her hand was stretched out to his and she was screaming for him. 

_ “Steve!” _

He woke with a start, bolting upright in his bed, sweat beading on his forehead and running down his face. He threw the blankets off and sat up on the edge of the bed. The room was silent, with only the whirring of the fans above him making any noise. Pushing off the bed, he padded down the walkway to the window, staring out into the night. The woman had called for him...called him by name. Steve. Was that his name?

“Hey...are you alright?” 

He turned to see the nurse, Margaret, standing behind him. She had been a constant friend these last few months, trying to help him remember who he was. 

“Another dream,” he replied, moving his hand through his hair absentmindedly. 

“The same woman?” 

He nodded. “She was...in pain. Calling out for me, but...she said my name. At least, I think it’s my name.”

“What did she say?”

“Steve.” The name rolled off his tongue easily, like he had said it a thousand times before.

Margaret thought for a minute and then looked at him. “I think...I need to go look at the records.”

She quickly walked down the way toward the office area. He followed behind and came in as she pulled up a box and opened it to several files inside. She began to rifle through them.

“When the war ended, every embassy that could put together a list of soldiers that were missing in action or presumed dead and sent them to all of the field hospitals that were treating the wounded,” she explained as she pulled the files forward and continued to look. “Of course, they were not complete files, but they sent what they could.”

He nodded and sat down. “You think I might be in there?”

“I’m not sure...we never had a first name to go off of since you couldn’t remember, but I think there might be a Steve or Steven in here,” she replied. Her hands nimbly worked through each of the folders until she paused. “Here it is...Captain Steven Trevor. A US pilot that went missing after a mission in Belgium.”

She turned the file so he could see and he opened it to a photograph of himself. He was this man. As he held the file, he had flashes of moments in his mind. London, where he was stationed and a woman named Etta, who was a secretary. And then an island...a beautiful island with the woman from his dreams. 

“Diana…” he suddenly whispered. The woman’s name was Diana. 

As if he was struck by lightning, he began to see flashes of memories. Meeting her on Paradise Island and then coming to London to find Ares. The battle in Veld and the night that followed. Everything was coming back to him, albeit in pieces. And then the plane. The plane that he willingly climbed into to stop Maru and her gas that would have wiped out millions. He had found a parachute on that plane and jumped out as he had rigged the plane to blow up. But the landing...the landing had not gone so well, which he figured was the cause of his injuries and the memory loss.

“The woman from your dreams?” Margaret asked. 

Steve nodded. “I need to get back to London.”

It was the only place he knew to go to. His base of operations was there, though he had no idea where Diana would have gone. Probably back home to Themyscira. But he had to return to London so that at least his family and friends would know that he was alive. Nine months gone and he would have been declared dead by now, so he had to leave as soon as possible. He thanked Margaret for her help and secured passage from Belgium the following morning to London after showing the file to the authorities to prove his identity.

The journey took a few days, but upon his arrival to London, he immediately set out to find Etta. Her office had relocated to another building, but with some digging, he was able to find her. He came inside and was led back to her office by some gentlemen who had no idea who he was. But as he stood in the doorway and caught her attention, she looked white as a sheet for a moment, as if she was seeing a ghost. And he supposed that after all this time, he was a ghost to her.

“Hi Etta,” he said quietly.

Her shriek was loud enough to pierce one’s ear as she came over and immediately swatted his arms.

“STEVEN...TREVOR…” she screamed between swats, “I...MOURNED FOR YOU...DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA...WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? NO WORD FOR ALMOST A YEAR!”

“Etta...please...let me explain!” 

She stopped and glared at him in only a way that Etta could, letting him know that the explanation had better be good.

He moved to sit down and began to tell her how he had woken up in the hospital in Belgium five months after the war ended with no idea who he was or what had happened. As he told her of the dreams he had of Diana and how it led him to figuring out who he was and that he needed to come home, she nodded understandingly and wiped her eyes with her tissue.

“She’s still here, you know,” she said as he finished his tale.

“In London?” He was not expecting her to be. Surely she would have gone home after her mission was complete.

Etta nodded. “She couldn’t go back, not after everything she had seen. She’s been living in your flat since the end of the war. It has been incredibly difficult for all of us, but especially her. We all mourned your death after it was all over.”

Steve felt so much guilt at knowing that he had caused Diana pain. When he had jumped into that plane, he had done so because he had wanted to do what was right. To do something about a great wrong in the world, just as his father had taught him. He knew that his sacrifice would cause her pain, but he never imagined that it would be that great. 

“I...I want to see her,” he said. 

“I’ll go with you...to soften the shock,” she offered. 

Nodding, he got up and left the building with Etta before going to the building where his flat was located. It was hot and muggy outside, so he was thankful that he had worn a short-sleeved shirt and pants. By the time they had reached the building, he was sweating. But he carried on and went up the stairs until they reached the floor and Etta approached the door and knocked. Steve stayed to the side of the door, not wanting to ambush Diana the moment she opened. When he heard the door open, he could feel the beat of his own heart in his ears.

“Etta, I did not know you were coming by,” he heard Diana say. The lilt of her voice and her accent was something that soothed him.

“Well I didn’t mean to just pop in, but I have something important for you to see,” Etta said, glancing in his direction.

Steve stepped from the side of the door into the doorway and looked at Diana. She was wearing a blue skirt with a white shirt that outlined her figure perfectly. Her hair was falling in soft curls around her shoulders, just the way he remembered it. Every part of her was just as he remembered. Still beautiful and unchanged, despite the war and despite it all.

“Diana…” he said softly.

  
  



	2. A Miracle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for your kind words and support. Let me know what you think!

Standing in the doorway of her flat, Diana looked at Steve right in front of her and felt as though she had seen a ghost. This...could not be real. It had to be a dream, like the nightmares that she had right after the end of the war. Etta had called it shell shock, a condition that many soldiers who came back from the war suffered from. Diana had gone through many of those nightmares herself in the wake of the end of the war. Many of them were reliving Steve’s death, but also some that were moments of things she wished could have been. So this was a dream. It had to be, because Steve was dead. She had seen it with her own eyes when the plane had exploded in the sky above her while she was fighting Ares. There was no way he could have survived that, according to Charlie, Sammy, and Chief. No remnants of the plan were ever found, other than small pieces of scrap metal, and no body was recovered from the site. 

“No...no this is a trick!” The tears were already beginning to well up in her eye as she looked from him to Etta. “Why would you do this?”

“No sweetheart, you need to let us come in...there is a lot to explain,” Etta replied, reaching out to touch her hand. “Some things have happened and you need to understand.”

Diana recoiled and stepped back, afraid that she would wake at any moment as she let Etta and Steve into the flat. The man looked like him and sounded like him. He even walked just the same as Steve did, but she could not bring herself to believe that this was real. She could see the dimples in his cheeks and the creases in his eyes as he turned to face her. They were the same as she remembered from the night that she spent with Steve in Veld. He had the same intense stare and eyes the color of the ocean. All of that was the same. But she had learned that looks could be deceiving. They sat in the sitting area and she looked at him, still trying to figure out if she could believe this or if it was a dream from her sheer exhaustion from the lack of sleep that she had been enduring the last few days.

“You died…” she said softly. “I saw it. The plane exploded in the sky with the gas.”

“I should have died, but I found a parachute and was able to rig the plane to explode after I jumped out,” he explained. “The landing was not as smooth as I hoped for.”

“You’ve been alive this whole time and never came home?” Diana could feel her anger rising and clenched her fist to quell it. But then she knew that Steve would never just abandon her. Not if he could help it or find a way back to her. Because he was a good man, loyal to those that he cared about, and he had told her that he loved her before he went to that plane.

“When I woke up in a hospital, it was April...and I had no idea who I was. All I knew was that I had survived the war and that I kept having these dreams. About you, Diana. Those dreams were what kept me going because I knew that you had to be important. I didn’t know who you were, but I knew that you were always there.”

Looking at him, she realized that this was not a dream or a trick. Steve had truly come back to her as soon as he was able to. Her heart sank at the thought of him waking up in a place where he had no idea who he was or what had happened to him. All of his memories gone and no reminders of the past that he had. Diana could not imagine what he had been through and knew that she could never understand that part of what had happened. Even if her mother had lied to her about her own identity, she still had her memories of her childhood and her home. The memories of her training with her beloved aunt and the stories her mother had told her when she was growing up. Steve had woken up with none of that, having to go through months of not knowing or having any information about who he was or where he had come from. It would have been frightening to Diana.

“How did you...find out who you were?”

“I had this dream about a week ago...you were in pain and you were calling out to me,” he said. “You said my name. And when I woke up, I talked with the nurse who had files for missing soldiers. She found mine.”

“Oh Steve,” she whispered, covering her mouth with her hand. 

“I had to come home to London,” he finished. “I didn’t know if you were still here...or if you had gone back to Paradise Island, but I knew Etta would be here and she would know.”

“I could not go back,” she answered softly. “Not after…”

Steve nodded understandingly, seemingly aware that after all she had seen, she could never go back and leave the world of man. They needed guidance and love, which had been robbed of for so long at the hands of her brother. All of the horrors of the war she had seen also kept her from going back to a world where she had known none of that. No one on Themyscira would understand what she had seen. Even though they had seen war, none of them had seen the horrors of this war and what it had done to humanity. And then there was the matter of her heart, which could not bring itself to leave somewhere that the man she had loved had lived. Now...she had an even greater reason. 

A small wail from the bedroom brought Diana to her senses as she immediately got up and went to tend to her daughter, who had been sleeping in her cradle. She scooped her up into her arms and gently shushed her, kissing her head and holding her close. The baby was soothed and only whimpered as she protested sleep. Andromeda was a stubborn child, much like Diana herself had been when she was young. As she cradled her baby, she came into the sitting room again to find that Steve was speechless as he looked at her and then the tiny bundle in her arms.

“I should...let you two talk,” Etta said, using that as her cue to excuse herself. 

Steve stared for a moment, completely at a loss for words before Diana came to it beside him on the couch when they were alone. His eyes were full of questions as he looked from her to their baby and then back to her. There was no way to explain any of it before now, but she knew that he needed to know about their daughter’s existence. He had been gone all these months and had no idea that she had been pregnant.

“Is that…?” He was struggling to find the words, she could tell. 

“Our daughter,” she replied.

“You...had a baby. Our baby…” He was in awe as he reached over and gently touched Andromeda’s tiny fingers with his own.

“You said you had a dream a week ago that I was in pain,” she said. “That was the night I gave birth to her.”

That was no coincidence. The gods did not just let things happen for no reason and she knew that the dream he had was a vision.. To bring him back home to her and for him to meet his daughter. Her labor had been all through the night and had been the most pain she had ever experienced in her life. The midwife that had tended to her had been so helpful in moving Diana around to relieve the pain, but it was still one of the hardest things she had ever done. Part of her wondered if her mother had been through the same pain when she was brought into this world, since she had obviously lied about sculpting her from clay and begging Zeus to bring her to life. But those were questions that she might never get answered. None of that mattered right now, though, as she held Andromeda and looked at Steve.

“Diana...I...I’m so sorry,” he said, looking from the baby to her. “I would have never left you to do any of this alone.”

“Steve,” she said, reaching over to cup his cheek with her palm. “I know that you would have not done that on purpose. But...she is what has given me so much joy in the last few months where I had so much pain from losing you.”

He nodded and looked back to the baby. “What’s her name?”

“Andromeda Stephanie Prince,” she replied, looking at him as he was enamored by their daughter. 

“That..that’s a beautiful name. Can I…?”

“Of course you can,” she said, carefully moving the bundle from her own arms to Steve’s. 

As he took the baby in his arms, her heart swelled with pride and she knew that she had to remember this moment forever. If he was nervous, he never let it show as he cradled Andromeda and brushed his other hand over her little cheek. The tenderness between them was beautiful and Diana choked back her own emotions as she wiped a stray tear from her cheek. This was all she had ever wanted. To have Steve at her side and for him to know their daughter, to hold her and rock her to sleep at night, and to show her the world the way that he saw it through his own eyes. The way that he taught Diana when she first came to the world of men. 

“She is so beautiful,” he murmured as he looked at her and then to Diana. “You did this...all by yourself. And I...I can’t believe that she is real.”

“We did this,” she corrected with a soft smile. “You gave me a gift, Steve.”

“When I jumped in that plane, I never imagined that I was leaving behind this…” he said quietly. “You and her.”

“No one could have known,” she said as she reached over and touched his hand gently. “I didn’t even know until four weeks after the war ended.”

“I’ve missed so much,” he commented sadly. “Being there for you. Her birth.”

“But you are here now. And she is still so small that she will never know a time when you weren’t here for her.” 

Steve nodded and smiled a little. Diana leaned over and kissed him softly on the lips, brushing her palm along his cheek and careful not to crush the baby between them. It was all she had wanted did the last nine months and she knew that she would never take him for granted. Not after all she had seen.

“I love you, Steve Trevor,” she said, knowing in her heart it was what she had wanted to tell him that night on the airfield before he had jumped in that plane.

“I love you,” he replied, smiling at her. 

* * *

All at once, he was back from the dead and a father. Steve never imagined that one night in Veld with the woman he loved would have created a child, but she was here and, like her mother, she was beautiful and had captured Steve’s heart from the moment that he laid eyes on her. Andromeda looked so much like Diana with her dark curls and the same long, delicate fingers. And Diana...God, she was a vision. She had taken to motherhood without a second thought and made it look seemingly effortless as she rocked Andromeda and took care of her.

Steve was not one to assume anything, so he had made himself comfortable on the couch that night when it was time to go to sleep. Even if they had spent the night together in Veld and she had given birth to his child, he was never one to just suppose that things were or were not what he thought. So, he had taken a blanket and a pillow to make a bed for himself so that Diana could be more comfortable in the bedroom on the actual bed. When Diana came to the doorway, he saw her and smiled a little. 

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“I uh...didn’t want to assume...figured you would want some privacy,” he replied. 

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “Come to bed. We have a baby together and I don’t want you away from us any longer.”

Without even a protest, Steve immediately got up and went to the bedroom with her. The lights were low and she was already dressed for sleep as she slipped into the bed. Her nightgown was simple with a few buttons in front and her hair fell in waves and curls around her shoulders. She was as stunning as she had been that night in Veld. Steve joined her and wrapped his arm around her as she laid her head on his chest. Her weight against him was comforting and a reminder of why he had survived and had come home in the first place. To be with her.

“I know that the last few months have been hard,” he started quietly. “And I can’t imagine what you have been through because I haven’t been here and you thought that I was...dead. But I promise that I’m not going anywhere now.”

“And a promise is unbreakable,” she replied, looking up at him. “I don’t want to lose you again...I would not survive that.”

Looking down at her, he could see the pain in her eyes. She had seen him die...at least that is what she believed when the plane exploded in the sky right above her. He had felt guilty for leaving, for doing what he had to do in order to end the war and save millions of lives. Even at the expense of his own, which was why he had told her that he loved her and that he had wished that they had more time. He pressed his lips to hers softly, at first, but with more urgency as she slipped her hand along his chest up to his cheek. The kiss was passionate, needy, and full of so much that neither could put into words after being apart for so long. Her lips were soft and her touches delicate as he held her tightly against him. They only paused when a tiny whimper came from the cradle and Diana pulled away, going to the side to peer over the edge. 

“Is she okay?” He had never been around a baby before, at least not for an extended period of time.

Diana was already picking her up from the cradle, whispering soft things in what Steve assumed was Greek as she brought Andromeda to the bed with her. Their daughter was red faced and already waving her tiny fists around in protest as her nose scrunched up with her cries. 

“She is hungry,” Diana said, already unbuttoning her nightgown.

“Oh...should I step out?” He had no idea what to do here.

“Steve,” she said, exposing her breast and moving the baby against it. “It is nothing you have not already seen. And it is perfectly natural.”

“Right,” he replied, chuckling a little. 

Andromeda quieted as she began to nurse, her eyes opening and looking up at Diana as her little hand uncurled from the fist and relaxed against her mother’s chest. Steve felt his heart tug as he watched his daughter with a quiet admiration for the woman he loved. She was humming softly as she rocked with the baby against her breast. He could hear the little noises that their daughter made as she was content and happy. It was the most beautiful thing he had seen in his life and he realized that he would not trade anything for what he had right here. 

“Before she was born...I could not understand my mother,” she said quietly. “Why she would keep me from training or why she kept lying to me about who my father was. I was so angry with her for so long. But now...now I understand.”

“Because she loved you. And only wanted to protect you.”

“Just like I want to protect Andromeda,” she added.

Steve remembered how much that his own parents tried to keep him protected from the world, when they could. His father taught him how to fight, of course, so that he could defend himself. But also taught him in the same aspect that choosing  _ when _ to fight and when to walk away was also just as important. After signing up for the Army, Steve knew that they had been worried for him. Sending their son off to a global war was not what they had envisioned when he was born, but he had seen something wrong with the world and wanted to do something to fix it rather than doing nothing, which didn’t work. And they had been proud of him when he had become a pilot. Now he would be able to come home to them and introduce them to Diana and Andromeda. 

“We will keep her safe,” he swore. 

“We will,” she agreed. “For now, there is peace, but humanity has been tortured and convinced for a long time by my own brother to be distrustful and to value pride over helping others.”

“But now that he’s gone, there can be some good,” he said. “Not all humans are bad.”

“No, not all,” she replied. “There is still good in this world. Like you. And Charlie, Sammy, Etta, and Chief.”

“Not bad for a bunch of thieves and smugglers?” He chuckled a little, knowing that though his friends had not alway done the best things, when it came down to it, they did the right things.

“They are still good men. And Etta...she helped me in this world after the war. Helped me prepare to be a mother.”

Diana smiled and brushed her fingers over Andromeda’s while Steve watched. His daughter was so tiny but absolutely perfect as she was a mixture of him and Diana. A reminder of what they shared between them. When she had finished, Diana carefully handed Steve the baby as she fixed her nightgown, showing him how to lay her against his shoulder to pat her back. Andromeda made a contented burp before relaxing against his chest as he moved her down. Her little body laid against his as he smiled and rubbed her back in small circles, something he remembered his own mother doing when he was a small boy. Within a few minutes, she was asleep without a fuss.

“She will not sleep like that for anyone else,” Diana mused as she laid on her side facing them. 

“No one?” 

She shook her head and smiled. “Just me...and now you. So she must know that you are her Papa.”

“Yeah,” he grinned. “I’m her Papa.”

The weight of that hit him and he knew that he was proud to say it. For all his talk of not believing in marriage and all of that, he knew the minute that he fell for Diana that everything about those beliefs was long gone. He would gladly do all of it with her. As he laid there with Diana and Andromeda, he was thankful that he was able to come home.

“Steve,” she said quietly.

“Yeah?” 

“How did you survive that fall? It should have killed you.”

A question he had been asking himself since the moment he woke up in the hospital. The parachute had done its job, mostly, but then the sheer velocity with which the explosion had sent him to the ground, even with one, should have killed him. From his fall, he had a few broken bones and some burns, which healed up without much scarring. Yet, none of it made sense to him. Not when he had seen men fall in the same manner and come out paralyzed or worse, dead.

“I don’t know...I like to think that I just got lucky,” he replied honestly. “The doctors said it was a miracle.”

“A miracle…”


End file.
